This invention relates in general to holding and displaying sheet arts, and more specifically, to holding devices such as picture frames and boards for holding and displaying the sheet arts. Here the sheet arts may include art sheets, photographs, printer outputs, and any sheet materials that are to be displayed.
Picture frames, or simply termed frames in the present discussion, can be divided into two different types of frames depending on its commercial transaction. The first type of frame is a photo frame or commonly still termed as picture frame. It is usually sold as a unit by itself without the art sheet. The buyer generally uses such frame for framing a personal photo. But occasionally such frames are also used to frame a non-photo art sheet such as a high school diploma.
Most photo frames are user friendly to a certain degree. It generally allows user to reuse this photo frame for displaying other photos or art sheets. Most photo frames can only hold one or two photos, and is not flexible enough to hold a large number of photo sheets. The retainers used in these photo frames such as turn buttons are passive retaining means and is not strong enough to hold without shifting a photo which is smaller than the internal size of the frame. Adhesive must be used to glue this photo to the back of a mat board. This will likely result in some damage to the photo or the mat board. It will also prevent the same mat board to be later used for other photos.
Some photo frames use one or more card boards as spacers, which can be removed for allowing more photos to be stored. But unless the additional photos added equal the card boards removed in thickness the photos mounted will not be firmly held by the passive turn buttons
The second type of frames is an art frame. This art frame is usually sold as part of a pre-framed art or custom made at a framing shop after an art sheet is acquired. The primary function of this art frame is for displaying and protection of the framed art sheet. This is OK if the art sheet is an original art or expensive limited edition reproduction of an original art. In view of its high cost the accompanied art frame more likely will serve this art sheet indefinitely and will not be reused again.
But in many cases the art frame will cost more than the art sheet it intends to display and protect. For example, an official reproduction of the famous Mona Lisa print (50 cm×70 cm; 20″×27″) can be purchased from Louvre at about the cost of a typical dinner for two. But it may cost several times of that to obtain an art frame to properly frame such a print.
Largely owing to the recent advance of printing technology and computer based graphics, the reproduction of most original sheet art can be beautifully made at low cost. An archive grade ink jet color reprint can endure for one hundred years or more under normal photo frame display condition. Art sheet reproduction by good commercial grade but low cost mass printing may last even longer.
In spite of this print reproduction advancement, the present art frame industry is still placing main emphasis on the protection of the displayed art sheets. This is done at the expense of one other important consideration for an art frame, its reusability. This is done even the main cost in a framed art is the art frame itself.
As a general rule one only needs to keep enough frames to fill his or her household for display. One may continue to acquire more art sheets thereafter. In view of the significant cost of a frame, it is desirable that an existing art frame be made user friendly which would enable user to reuse the same frame for more other acquired art prints. But this is very difficult in the present practice.
Many people purchase a framed art out of impulse. After six months of display there is a strong urge to replace this displayed art. One would wish to know that this art frame can be reused for other art sheets display. A reusable art frame would also be desirable to a person who is interested in changing the displayed arts once in a while as a way to refresh the household wall decoration.
In most framed arts, the art sheet assemblies are held in the art frames with the use of brads or staples. Such retainers are generally not reusable and must be removed for mounting any new art sheets. Removing old retainers and installing new retainers will normally need special equipments and most users are not equipped or trained for such practice. The use of a kraft paper glued to the back of the frame will further intimidate any attempt to reuse the art frames.
As a picture frame is adapted for displaying more than one art sheet assembly, the storage of the unused art sheet assemblies including its mat boards will become a problem. Most picture frame only has space enough to hold one or rarely two art sheet assemblies. Since most wall mounted art sheets are large in size and it is difficult to find alternate space to store these unused art sheet assemblies for later use. If this problem is not resolved the user is unlikely to reuse the same frame for other art sheet display. A common consequence is increasing number of unused framed arts stored in attics or basements.
A calendar such as a monthly calendar normally has twelve calendar pictures, one for each month of the year. But these twelve calendar pictures are not twelve loose and separate pictures but are bound together in a book. Federal copy right law prohibits having one calendar picture removed and displayed separate from the rest of the copy. There is no viable and generally accepted way to display such calendars once it become expired. It is a waste of resource considering that most calendars carry elegant calendar pictures worthy of at least occasional display.
Several conventional boards such as clipboards and bulletin boards offer an alternative way to display art sheets inexpensively. But their use has not been popular in the market place. Some of such boards use a spring clip which is hard to operate and not visually pleasing for display. It must be held constantly against the spring force in the open position during the entire sheet unloading and loading processes. Many bulletin boards use pin or glue which are not secure way for holding sheets to be displayed. This is especially true for a multiple page stack which must be flipped through while mounted on the bulletin board on a wall.